Musical checkerboard



July 14, 1925. 1,545,842

D. MILLER MUSICAL CHEOKERBOARD Filed Aug. 14 1922 Jmv/Z WZ e1? why, Y

-white keyin excess-of two octaves.

Patented July 14, 1925.

ED s -D'OROTHY'MILLER-; OF KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI.

MUSICAL OHEGKERBOARD.

Application filed August 14, 1822. Serial No. 581,860.

T0 all 1072 om'z't'may concern:

Beit known'that iI, DOROTHY h'IILLER, a citizen of the United States, and resident of -Kansas City, county of Jackson, State of Missouri,have mventeda certain new and useful Improvement in Musical Checkerboards, of whiclrthe following is a complete specification.

This inventionrelates to musical checker boards or thelike, and has for 1ts obgect to produce 55111 interesting and instructive game .playedshke checkers or an" analogous game, whereby the. players shall, without conscious mental eflortflearn the names and .:positions.- of the L lines '7 and spaces of the musical stai'l',uand' the identification thereof on ithe. piano key board.

hlorespeoifically, the invention 'has for its object to produce a game Q board combining theieatures otsa checker or chess board or the like, musical stafispreferably both treble and bass.and.a piano key board adjacent and-parallelwithieach staff, each key board section; preferably comprising. one The game can be played in the treble or bass by two playerspusing duplicate sets of pieces preferably of dillerent' colors to avoid confusion, and each set comprises pieces 7.respectivelydettered a, b, c, d, e, f, and g.

Vith the object of producing a game board of the character set forth, the invention consists in combining with a checker board or the like, the representation of opposing musical staffs and key boards, and two sets of checker pieces marked from a tog inclusive, to be moved as in the game of checkers or the like, until one player has captured one complete set of the pieces of the other, bearing the names of the spaces or lines of the musical stafi', accordingly as the game is a game for spaces or lines or scales, chords, intervals, etc. It may also be a rule of the game that the player first capturing a complete set of the pieces of the opponent, shall be required to state when capturing a piece representative of a line or space as the case may be, that such piece corresponds in identification or name to a particular key of the key board, a failure to so state being penalized by the loss of the piece or in some other Way. The special rules or penalties of the game may be varied of course, as they are merely in the interest augmented preferably by of requiring the players-especially children, to be mentally alert and hence more quickly and thoroughly learn the names and relations of the lines and spaces of the musical staff and the relation thereto of the piano key :board.

In order that the invention may be readily understood, reference is made to the followmg tothe drawing which represents a plan or description and appended claims, and

face view of the game board.

Referring now to the drawing in detail, 1 indicates a board. preferably rectangular and provided centrally with the conventional checker board squares 2 and 3,

additional or special -king-rows at at the four sides of the conventional checker board marking. Outward of the king-rows at, andparallel therewith are representations of the piano key board as at 5, each key-board beingshown as running from the letter 0 through two complete octaves and one additional white key of the next octave above or below. Parallel with each key board, and appear ing upon-the outer sets of squares of the conventional checker board, are musical staii's, one parallelpair constituting treble stafis and'the other pair constituting bass staffs as identified by treble and bass staffindicating characters.

It is preferred that the first white keys at the left hand end of the keyboards parallel with the treble staffs, shall be marked M C to identify middle C, of the keyboard, and that the corresponding keys at the right hand end of the key boards parallel to the bass staffs shall be similarlv marked, thus indicating the position of middle c on both treble and bass stalls.

The pieces identified by the letters of the lines and spaces of the staff are preferably initially positioned on spaces 2 as shown and then they are used as in the game of checkers, the object of each player being to capture certain pieces, such as one set of the opponents pieces named in accordance with the lines or the spaces of the stall, treble or bass as the case may be. If a player penetrates the opponents king-row 4, he may crown the piece or pieces attaining such position and have the right to move in other directions as under the same conditions in the game of checkers.

The first player to capture a full set of pieces as above suggested, Wins the game,

though it may be a rule that if such player fails to indicate the position on the key board of each of such pieces before making any further move, he shall forfeit the piece. This, however, is a ruleof play merely.

Itwill be obvious that many games differing in the method of play or in the character of musical instruction, may beplayed on this board, and that some instructive games may be'played wherein the staffs or the key boards are 'used independently of each other, but in conjunction with the squares of the board,-the most satisfactory and interesting games however involving the use of the squares with both staffs and key boards."

From the above description it will be apperent that I have produced a musical game board possessing thefeatures of construction set forth as desirable in the statement of the objects of the invention, and which may be modified in minor particulars within the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A musical game board having a rectangularly checkered face and a pair of omusical staffs near opposite'inargins of the board, and pieces detachably resting and movable in any direction on the board in playing :the game, each piece bearing a character identifying it with respect to a 7' particular line or space of the musical staff.

2. A musical game board having a rectangularly checkered face and a pair of musical staffs near opposite margins of the board, pieces detaohably resting and movable in any direction on the board in playing the game, each piece bearing a character identifying it withrespect to a particular line or space of the musical staff, and king-rows near opposite margins of the board. v j

' 3'. A musical game board having a rectangularly checkered face and representations ofpiano key boards at opposite sides of such checkered face, and pieces detachably resting and movable in any'direction upon the checkered face in playing the game, each piece bearing a character identifying it with respect to a particular key of the key board. i

4. A musical game board having a checkered face, a musical'staff near each margin of the board, a piano key board representat on ad acent each staff, and pleces detachably resting and movable in any. directiOlLUPQDiZllG board in playing the game,

each piece having acharacter identifying it with respect to aparticular line or space and a particular key of therespectivelstafi and key board representation.

5.: A musical game board having a checkeredface, a musical staff near each side of" the board, a '1."epresentation of a piano key board adjacent each of said staffs, a kingrow interposed between each musical staff and the acqacentkeyboard representation,

and pieces detachably resting and movable'in any direction upontheboard in hereunto aflix my slgnature; 1

DOROTHY MILLER, 

